And for good reason. They’re all industry leaders and key contributors to the $1.97 trillion earned globally among the top 100 online marketplaces in 2019.

But they’re by no means the only choices. There are countless other online marketplaces that are potential gold mines for e-commerce sellers—some of which you may never have even heard of. 

And that’s what I’m going to discuss here. In this post, I’ll outline 5 of the lesser-known sites to check out, including what industries they focus on, store examples, how to get up, and how much they charge for fees. 

Let’s go.

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Table of Contents

1. Poshmark

2. Overstock

3. Wayfair

4. Newegg

5. Bonanza

1. Poshmark

Launched in 2011, Poshmark is a social commerce marketplace focusing on fashion that has seen sustained growth over the past decade. And given that they increased their revenue by 28 percent during the first three quarters of 2020, they’re clearly on a positive trajectory. 

As of early 2020, they had 70 million users in the US and Canada and more than 200 million items for sale. There are a ton of notable brands on this marketplace, including Nike, Coach, and Michael Kors just to name a few. 

But it’s a resource that can be used by small to mid-sized e-commerce store owners as long as they’re selling clothing, shoes, or accessories. What I love about Poshmark is just how easy they make it to sell on their platform. 

You simply take a photo of the item on your iPhone or Android, create a description, and set a price. 

Whenever a product is sold, Poshmark provides you “with a pre-paid, pre-addressed label ready to be put on the box.”

So, if you’re fairly new to e-commerce and still learning the ropes in terms of logistics, Poshmark can be a huge help for streamlining things so you can spend less time dealing with shipping and more time actually running your business. 

If you’re wondering what a shop looks like on Poshmark, here’s an example from women’s clothing brand, One Teaspoon.

Shoppers can seamlessly browse through their store, click on an item, look at multiple pictures, and buy.

No sweat. It’s free to list a product on Poshmark. Whenever a product sells, they deduct a fee from the final order price—a $2.95 flat fee for sales under $15 and 20% for sales over $15. You can get set up as a seller on Poshmark here. 

2. Overstock

Overstock is a brand name most people have heard thrown around, but it may not necessarily be on their radar as a place to sell. It’s an online marketplace that focuses primarily on furniture and decor and has been around for more than two decades, with origins dating all the way back to 1999. 

As of October 2019, Overstock had more than 40 million customers—many of which are extremely loyal. It’s evolved a lot over the years, going from this in 1999….

…to this in 2020.

As I just mentioned, Overstock specializes in selling furniture and home decor. But they cater to e-commerce sellers in several other industries as well, including:

• Jewelry
• Outdoors
• Home improvement 
• Office supplies
• Baby and kids clothing
• Pet supplies
• And more

NOVICA is an example of a successful brand selling on Overstock. The brand specializes in home decor, jewelry, and gifts. 

The design is crisp and clean, and check out is a breeze.

Selling on Overstock is fairly straightforward. First, you complete a survey. “Tell us about your business and we’ll review your product assortment, pricing, and operational capabilities. We’ll contact you within a few weeks if your business aligns with Overstock’s initiatives.”

Once you’ve been approved, you then set up your account where you build SKUs and start merchandising your items. Then, you can start selling your products on Overstock. They provide you with the tools to manage and fulfill orders while making the process as simple as possible. 

A great perk of this online marketplace is the site-wide sales and promotions and built-in advertising options you can capitalize on. Overstock, for instance, has co-op marketing that allows you to create beautiful ads to maximize your brand and product visibility. 

They also offer native analytics in real-time dashboards so you always have a bird’s eye view of trends so you can tell what’s working to optimize your store. 

In terms of pricing, listing fees range from $0.10 to $3.15, and total commission fees add up to roughly 3 percent of the revenue for items up to $25. The total fees on items over $25 aren’t disclosed until after you’ve signed up with them. 

For a full rundown on partnering with Overstock and info on how to get set up, visit this page. 

3. Wayfair

Another great option for brands in the furniture/home decor industry is Wayfair. They’ve been in the game since 2002 and boast some impressive numbers. For example, they currently have more than 19 million customers.

They processed 35 million+ orders in 2020, totaling around $8 billion. And their online marketplace is growing like crazy at nearly 40% a year. While furniture and home decor is their bread and butter, Wayfair allows brands to sell a lot of different products, including the following:

Most e-commerce sellers that use Wayfair have had great experiences, and it’s definitely a platform that can help you quickly increase your visibility to take your business to the next level.

Let’s take a look at an example of a company that’s used Wayfair to catapult their brand—Nostalgic Warehouse. They specialize in vintage door hardware and antique reproductions. 

Here’s what their store looks like.

There’s a beautiful looking header, which includes a store description, rating, and a button for following Nostalgic Warehouse. That’s followed by their most popular products, top-rated products, and products that are currently on sale.

Then, there’s a comprehensive list of all the products Nostalgic Warehouse is currently selling.

Everything looks incredibly professional, and the fluid navigation makes it easy for shoppers to find what they’re looking for and check out.

To sell on Wayfair, you first need to apply with them, where you provide some basic information about your business, and they’ll reply within 3-5 business days with the next steps to take. From there, you simply add your products, sell, and ship.

Some of the biggest perks about being on this online marketplace are that they pump a ton of money into marketing ($775 million in ad spend in 2018) and have promotions like Way Day, which help drive a high volume of targeted leads to their site.

They’re also very innovative and feature an intuitive partner portal and 3D technology to provide an awesome seller experience. Unlike many other online marketplaces that charge fees, Wayfair doesn’t do that. Instead, they use a wholesale cost model where they pay you the wholesale cost of your items, and they set the retail price.

Visit this page to learn more and start selling on Wayfair.

4. Newegg

Newegg was launched fairly recently in 2016, but in just five short years, they’ve become a well-respected online marketplace for all things computers and electronics. Although it won’t be viable for all e-commerce sellers, it certainly is if you sell:

• Computers
• Monitors
• TVs
• Digital cameras
• Phones
• Office supplies
• Gadgets
• Gaming accessories

Newegg is ranked the world’s number one global tech marketplace and serves over 40 million customers in 20 different countries. Currently, more than 2,700 brands sell through them, and they processed over 14 million packages in 2020. 

Their reach is massive and is only going to get bigger, so it’s definitely a third-party that’s worth your attention if you’re in the electronics sphere. 

Here’s an example of what products look like when they’re sold on Newegg from EC2WORLD—a brand that sells gadgets like gaming receivers, LED clock fans, and infrared thermometers.

Selling on Newegg involves a five-step process.

1. Apply and tell them about your e-commerce business
2. List your items
3. Promote your products
4. Ship your products (you can do it yourself or through Newegg)
5. Collect your earnings (Newegg pays weekly)

Here are some of the benefits of using this online marketplace. 

They offer enhanced seller stores, which allow you to “customize your Newegg Store landing page with featured products, banners, and video using New Egg’s Premium Seller Store.”

There’s a built-in discounted fulfillment service where Newegg will pick, package, and ship products for you, which is perfect if you’re stretched for time or just don’t want to deal with the hassle of handling all of your logistics in-house. 

They also have post-purchase emails, which can help you boost engagement and build deeper relationships with customers. Some specific features of their email are audience segmentation and scheduled emails.  

Here’s an outline of the three different pricing tiers that are available. 

As you can see, the basic, “Non-Elite” package is quite reasonable and allows you to list up to 5,000 items. Visit the Sellers section of Newegg’s website for more information on how to get set up. 

5. Bonanza 

Let me start by saying that Bonanza is a much smaller online marketplace than the other ones I’ve listed. They receive over 5 million visits per month according to data from SimilarWeb. And while that’s certainly not in the same stratosphere as e-commerce titans like Amazon and eBay, Bonanza does have a loyal following. 

They earned sixth place in the 2019 Seller’s Choice Awards, and the vast majority of sellers have nothing but positive things to say about them. Time Magazine even listed them as one of the world’s top 50 websites a few years back, so they’re definitely legit. 

In particular, they comment on their excellent customer support and minimal selling fees. When it comes to the types of industries on Bonanza, they run the gamut. 

There’s everything from fashion to crafts to health and beauty to antiques. Here’s a peek at what their marketplace looks like.

As you can see, the sellers that get a lot of positive reviews are listed as “Top Rated Sellers,” which helps bring more attention to their products. One thing I really like about Bonanza is that they offer several helpful tools that make selling easy such as:

• Multi-item editing
• Automatic background image removal
• Customized marketing

Getting things up and running on Bonanza is dead simple. Just create an account, set up a “booth,” and you’re set up in no time. You can get started on this page. 

As I mentioned before, one of the main reasons e-commerce sellers are interested in Bonanza is because of their low fees, which are 3.5 percent of the Final Offer Value (FOV) for most stores. This page offers a full explanation of pricing and provides an example. 

While Bonanza, admittedly, isn’t the best option if you’re looking for enormous exposure like you would get with Amazon, the low fees and seamless user experience certainly make it an option worth considering.

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Conclusion

At the end of the day, the main ingredient for e-commerce success is getting your products in front of the largest target audience possible. And often the best way to do that is by selling through online marketplaces. 

After all, this allows you to tap into a well-established customer base—something that’s a lot more difficult if you’re building one from scratch. 

Research even found that marketplace growth increased by 18 percent from 2018 to 2019, which shows the direction this trend is heading. While selling through these platforms does cut into your profit margins, the increased revenue and overall growth usually justify it. 

The key is using the right online marketplace that’s a natural fit for the industry you’re in. As we’ve just learned, there are plenty of options available outside of the big boys like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart, and hopefully, this list has given you some new ideas to get the ball rolling. 

Which of these online marketplaces are you most interested in?